The Loss of the Prodigal Son
by Miss. Poppy May
Summary: A one-shot about how Paul and Sally found out about Percy's disappearance.


Paul walked into the cozy, warm apartment, his cheeks stinging from the cold and change in temperature. It was Christmas Eve, and he was spending it with the love of his life. Even though Sally hadn't celebrated Christmas in years (her son was, after all, the child of a pagan god) she decided that they would this year because Paul was Christian and he had yet to completely wrap his head around the whole Greek gods concept. Percy wasn't here, he had opted to spend the break with his friends and girlfriend at camp seeing as he didn't celebrate the holiday. It wasn't that he didn't like Percy, he really did, but it was nice to just spend time with his soon to be wife alone without having to worry about myths and all other things Percy-related.

"Sally! I'm back!" Paul called, stomping his feet on the mat to get rid of any leftover snow that clung to his boots and hanging up his jacket and snow gear. The only response he got was a faint sniffling sound from the kitchen.

"Sally?" He called hesitantly, walking into the kitchen to find a rather unpleasant sight. Sally was crying softly, her Sweets On America uniform rumbled and wisps of hair falling from her ponytail. But that wasn't the worst part. The worst part was who was comforting her. Paul had only met him once before on Percy's birthday, but he was positive that he didn't like the guy. Part of it stemmed from jealously, after all, he was literally a god, and how on earth could Paul compete with that? The other part was how he just abandoned Sally and her son, never helping or anything. He cleared his throat to announce his presence and Sally immediately looked up.

"Pa-Paul?" She croaked, untangling herself from her former lover's embrace, much to Poseidon's chagrin and Paul happiness and flung herself onto Paul, starting a whole new round of sobs.

"What's wrong Sally?" He whispered softly, rubbing her back in an effort to get her to calm down.

"He's gone Paul!" She wailed, "my little hero is gone!" Paul frowned.

"Percy?" He was confused, Sally knew that Percy was gone, he was at camp. She nodded weakly in response.

"Of course she means Percy, who else would she be talking about?" An irritated voice snapped, and Paul's attention was, unfortunately, brought to Poseidon. Last time he had seen him, Poseidon was an older clone of Percy. Tall and massive with tan skin, messy black curls, piercing green eyes that constantly changed color and sharp, defined, angular features that made both of them get branded as rebels. The only difference was that Poseidon had a neatly trimmed beard and crinkles at the corners of his eyes. Now, he couldn't barely tell that this was the proud man that had stood before him nearly a year ago. He hair was graying and he seemed to have more lines etched into his face. His eyes no longer sparked with happiness, but looked like the sea during a storm, full of anger and sadness. Poseidon must have been crying at one point, because his eyes were rimmed red.

"What happened to him?"he asked cautiously, remembering that Poseidon was a god and could easily kill Paul if he wanted to.

"That's just it, no one knows. Camp has been searching for him, as have the satyrs, nymphs and dryads, but there's no trace of him. The Huntresses have even joined the search." Sally looked like she was ready to burst out into tears again.

"Why would the huntresses be looking for him? Percy's a man, don't they hate men?" Poseidon spoke again.

"My niece, she has a bit of a… soft spot you could say for Percy. Plus, his cousin, Thalia, is Artemis' lieutenant and she's quite distraught over his disappearance, though she would never admit it." Paul was dumbfounded.

"But he's your _son_!" Poseidon raised his eyebrow at me.

"Good observation." He said dryly.

"You're a god, aren't you? Can't you do something? Don't you know where he is?" He winced in response.

"Ancient laws state that I'm not allow to interfere. Even if I was allowed to, I couldn't do anything about it. The gods have been sentenced to lock down on Olympus. No one leaves, no one comes in. We aren't allowed to answer prayers and Hermes can't even deliver messages. The only person who is free to come and go is Iris, but even she has certain restrictions."

"So basically," Paul said snidely, "you're useless." The room was dead silent, even Sally's crying had stopped.

"I'm doing everything I can, insolent mortal, I'm not the only god, if you're smart enough to remember. " Sally spoke up again.

"Another god is doing this?" She gasped, as though the gods interfering was something new. Poseidon nodded.

"I suspect it's Hera, she's crazy enough to do it and the only one Zeus is afraid of, so he won't question her or force her to stop." At his statement, thunder crackled even though it was snowing.

"I'm afraid that Zeus only allowed me to tell you Sally, I must be going." He sighed, grabbing Sally from my side and pulling her in for a hug, holding her close, he whispered something into her ear. She nodded and let out a small sob, pressing herself closer to him. Paul's blood boiled at the sight. He let her go and looked her in the eyes.

"Our son is a hero, he will make it back to the both of us." Sally nodding, using her sleeve to wipe tears off her face.

"I'll try to stay positive." She whimpered. Poseidon smiled in response.

"And so will I," he said, and vanished into a cloud of mist. Sally collapsed into a chair and put her face in her hands. Paul wrapped his arm around her.

"It will be alright," he said. Sally shook her head.

"No, it won't. Not until he comes home."

* * *

><p><strong>Yay! My second one-shot story! I wanted to write a short little thing about Sally found out about Percy's disappearance , because even though she's his mother and should be among the first the know, no one felt like writing about how she would hear the news. I wanted it to be from Paul's perspective since he's Percy's soon to be step-dad and because I felt that Sally wouldn't be in the proper state of mind hearing the news to form coherent thoughts, and that would be boring (and confusing) to read.** ** I hope you enjoyed and if you want to, you can review. I really don't mind ;) **


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